A Bash, a Ride & a Swim

Coming off the Miami Marathon, I didn't do much training last week. It took me until Wednesday of last week before I got out for a run. A leisurely 10K to get the legs moving again. I would have gotten out for another run on Saturday, but was busy getting the house ready for my wife's 50th birthday party. Salome's mother spent the entire week whipping up a huge batches of Greek food and other party trays. Older son John came down from Gainesville for the weekend to partake of the festivities. The party reminded me a bit of our wedding reception. The crowd was so large that you would get to spend about 5 minutes with a guest before needing to move on to mingle with other guests. Of course, my tri buddies were all there and a Sunday morning bike ride was planned. Not the best idea to plan an early morning ride after an evening of drinking wine, doing a bit of dancing and staying up late.

The next morning, I dutifully roll out of bed at 6AM to make the 7 AM bike start. Only four of us show up, all on our Cervelo tri bikes. Several miles into the ride, I note that my cadence sucks. My legs feel more like runner's legs and dead runner's legs at that. The price of running a marathon the week before. I'm just averaging about 17.5 mph and start falling off the back of our "Gang of Four." Given that I got them all drunk and well fed the night before, my buddies slow up and let me latch onto the group. Over the next few miles, I realize I'm holding them back. After about 10 miles, I announce that I'm turning around. Buddy John, who is just conditioning himself to ride his new tri bike offers to turn with me. On the return trip, we luckily converge with a large riding group making our return trip home a little easier and more social.

Tuesday, Salome & I hit the country club pool for a swim session. I hadn't done a swim since a couple of weeks before the holidays. With an Olympic distance triathlon coming up on March 11th, it was time to get wet again. Its always an odd feeling first 5 minutes in the water after such a layoff. I have to rethink my swim stroke and head positioning. But like my skiing skills, the mind and body soon remember how it feels and I'm back in my rhythm. The only problem is my muscle memory is from the ironman and I keep forgetting to get ready for the turns. I whack my arm at the end of the pool a few times, reminding myself that I really prefer the open water to pool work. I can't wait until the open water warms just a bit.

After my swim, I'm felt invigorated. The upper body was a little pumped up and my arms and shoulders felt good. I think the reason I felt so good was that it was a bit of redemption from my dead legs Sunday ride. I think my body craved switching to more of an upper body pool workout and letting the legs take a bit of a break. Ah, the benefits of cross training!

Finally, as you may know, the Super Blow was in South Florida this past weekend. There was a three story sign on Ft. Lauderdale Beach for the event, so we had to go take some shots of the decorations. Here's a family photo with the signage.